Planning is not something that comes easily to everyone. Believe me, I speak from experience! As many of you know, though, having children can whip even the most disorganized mama into shape! When my son was young I quickly came to realize how important it was to not only plan my meals more than an hour in advance, but to also clip coupons, write grocery lists and make sure that I was hitting most of the important food groups (like dessert, for example).
Over the years, technology has crept its way into my kitchen and has come to play a pretty hefty role in how I plan my family’s meals… and, in fact, how the Kitchen Crew and I keep up with all your delicious recipes!
Every day the Crew and I review newly-posted member recipes and add the ones that sound extra-tasty to our cooking calendar. That’s right, I said cooking calendar! All of the dishes we prepare – and believe me, that’s a LOT of dishes – are organized and scheduled using the menu planning tools right here in the Club! We are able to save recipes to our Recipe Box and then group related dishes together… either into themes (like Mexican foods or appetizers) or into complete meals. From there, we use the handy-dandy Menu Planner to schedule our cooking and print our entire grocery list for the week!
(And if you’re wondering… Yes, the Kitchen Crew and I all use coupons from the Club when shopping for ingredients. For some reason, great dishes taste even better when you know they were a bargain!)
Whether you’re cooking for one and want to limit trips to the grocery store, or you’re cooking for a crowd like us, check out the Just A Pinch planning tools. They are a huge time-saver and have been a most welcome addition to my kitchen. Throw in a bunch of coupons for recipe ingredients and you’re well on your way to some serious time and money-saving of your own!
Have fun ways of your own to save minutes and pennies? We’d love to hear ’em!